Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate PS Vita

As well as Batman Arkham Origins on PS3 the Vita will also be getting Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, a 2.5D ‘Metroidvania’ style adventure that continues the story after Origins. Here are the first screens and info.

Developer Armature were chosen because of it’s familiarity with the Metroidvania style. The setting will be an island, home to part of Blackgate Penitentiary where a prison riot has taken place, although the opener will be in Gotham.

It’s side scrolling with 2D animatics and full voice acting telling the story (there’s a screen of one in the gallery). Rather than leveling up abilities this sees Bats progress through the prison through new gear and upgrades. The line launcher for example lets you cross wide gaps.

While it’s a 2D game it will take advantage of the 3D visuals and let you “explore, fight, and interact with the foreground and background”. The gargoyle mechanic made it across and you can grapple up and out of sight of pursuing enemies. The combat is described as similar to the main game with attacks, counters, and use of foreground and background, as well as gear when you fight. For example you can stun enemies with a Baterang. Explosive gel can be shot onto different points around the screens and another example talks about dropping a chandelier on enemies.

It is being developed by Armature Studio. Armature Studio is a studio founded by several ex Retro employees, the studio responsible for the seminal Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Arkham Origins Blackgate is a 2.5D, sidescrolling Metroidvania

There is a focus on exploration and combat

The story events take place after the events of Arkham Origins

Feature list:

- Warner Bros. wanted to have a 2.5D-style Arkham game in the style of Metroidvania
- The company chose Armature because the studio was familiar with that style of game
- Takes place after the end of Origins
- Set on the isolated island at the Blackgate Penitentiary
- Prison uprising has occurred
- Intro level in Gotham
- Batman goes to Blackgate in order to put a stop to the riot
- 2D animatics with full voices tell the story
- Batman moves through a side-scrolling game world
- He'll pick up near gear and take on enemies along the way
- Interconnected passages and prison secrets
- Not focused on leveling up abilities like the console games
- Instead, it stays true to the subgenres formula
- All of Batmans improvements came through gear pick-ups and upgrades
- Team wanted to give players more of a sense of collection
- Mostly set along a 2D plane
- Takes full advantage of the visual three-dimensionality of the environments
- Explore, fight, and interact with the foreground abnd background
- Can grapple up to gargoyles on a background balcony while a crowd of armed inmates pass by
- Enemies will go after Batman from all angles
- Go to the foreground or background to tackle a designed foe
- Combat similar to the console Batman games
- Button taps to attack, counter, and use gear are in place
- Freeflow combat system
- Built from the ground up
- Batarang: stun enemies or hit distant objects
- Line launcher: cross wide gaps
- Explosive gel variation: shoot from a launcher onto spots around the screen
- This lets you get involved with entertaining takedowns such as dropping a chandelier on enemies from above
- More gadgets will also be in the game
- Has a version of the predator mode
- Game has a few more layers of feedback
- Ex: can see the sightlines of enemies
- This lets you know if enemies can see you or not
- Same kind of vantage points, floor grates, silent takedowns, glide kicks, weapon use, and breakable walls as in the console games
- Game is split into various sections
- Each can be accessed once you figure out a way inside
- No save rooms
- Modern checkpoint system
- Can manually save whenever you desire
- Can defeat the bosses in any order if you find out where you want to go
- We dont want you to break the game, but if you can exploit it in a certain way that we havent thought of, thats awesome. So its conceivable the players will have abilities that dont necessarily jibe that great with the boss. Weve taken some cues from other games where if you have a particular item against a boss, youll just rip them a new one, but we dont tell you what that item is
- Will have detective mode
- Tap a button and the screen fades into a digitized overlay with detailed info
- Green enemies: enemies havent seen you
- Red enemies: enemies are onto your location
- Move a reticle around the screen to focus Batmans attention
- Can use this to uncover secrets
- Uncover clues and analyze dangerous situations in detective mode

So, whats peoples thoughts on this?
I'm 50/50 and agree with some of the comments in the links provided that with games like Uncharted Golden Abyss and Assassins Creed Liberation, surely a fully fledged 3D open world Batman game is possible on the Vita?
This may turn out to be great but I am disappointed that its a side scrolling game when it could/should? have been a lot more.

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